Train passengers suffer 16-hour ordeal

Passengers on a Virgin train suffered a 16-hour overnight ordeal after a series of calamities.

Yet staff did not offer them a single word of apology.

At one stage a coach ferrying travellers between stations broke down on a motorway for four hours.

Thirsty passengers were reduced to looting cans of Virgin Cola they found under the driver's seat.

At the end of it all, the firm outraged them further.

Although Virgin boss Richard Branson admitted he was embarrassed by the fiasco, his unabashed executives announced that passengers would get only half their money back at the very most - because the train ran on schedule for the first half of the trip.

The nightmare journey began at 3.05pm on Monday when travellers paying up to £201 for a standard-class ticket boarded at Newcastle expecting to reach Plymouth at 10.25pm.

They finally limped into Plymouth by coach just after 7am yesterday, eight and a half hours late.

Marketing consultant Caren Barnfather, 29, who was among the passengers, said: 'If Richard Branson had been on the coach it wouldn't have taken four hours to fix it. It was horrific. But I didn't hear an apology of any kind.'

Mrs Barnfather, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, said: 'Every-thing was fine until we stopped at

Birmingham New Street at about 6.30pm. After 40 minutes they said they were waiting for a driver who had been delayed on a linking train.

'Then they said there were floods and the service was cancelled. Lots of chaos and confusion ensued, and we were told to leave the train. By 9pm three coaches had appeared.'

They continued by road, with diversions to stations along the line.

Mrs Barnfather said: 'At 1.30am we had a puncture on the M5. We could-n't sleep because the coach kept being jacked up. The driver told us how clever he was for refusing to pay £200 for a new tyre. The company only wanted to use the spare.

'With wagons rocking us as they went past, we were concerned about our safety. Eventually we phoned the police and they called a mechanic.'

Sir Richard Branson belatedly apologised for the 'nightmarish' journey on Radio Five Live's Breakfast Show. 'It sounds horrible,' he said. 'I promise I will have a look at it.'

Train companies are demanding extra compensation over disruption since the Hatfield crash.

Railtrack believes £400million it has set aside is adequate and now Rail Regulator Tom Winsor could intervene.